Although violent crimes represents a small proportion of total crime committed in London and the UK, it has a devastating impact on the lives of the victims and perpetrators, their families and communities. The good news is that reported crime involving guns and knives in London is going down but any incident of violence is one too many. Against this reduction, there continue to be many young people carrying or using weapons and violence. The problem of violence will only be tackled if schools, communities, young people, organisations and criminal justice professionals work together.

Tackling serious violence remains a high priority for the Metropolitan Police. There will be no let up in our sustained activity to enforce the law in relation to these issues but we are equally committed to preventing
the offences happening in the first place. The Metropolitan Police Service recognises the positive contribution that Calling the Shots can make in diverting young people away from violence and enabling them
to play a meaningful role in making London a safer place.

The Calling the Shots education programme is a teaching and learning resource designed to pro-actively address, educate and challenge young people about their assumptions and attitudes towards violence and weapons. Most importantly, it can be delivered by trained facilitators from the communities most affected by this violence. Each lesson plan and activity worksheet has been piloted with young people in a range
of environments including prisons, schools and the community. The themes address a broad framework of knowledge, skills and values such as peer pressure, anger management, law and authority, collective and individual responsibility and citizenship.

The Metropolitan Police welcomes the opportunity of promoting Calling the Shots. Working together with From Boyhood to Manhood Foundation we will be delivering this programme to young people we believe will most benefi t from the opportunities it will bring.